This invention generally relates to the horizontal casting of metals and is specifically directed to the alignment and mounting of the mold in a horizontal casting apparatus.
In the horizontal continuous D.C. casting of ingot and billet, generally molten metal is supplied to an elongated reservoir, commonly termed a feed box, which directs molten metals to one or more open ended molds wherein the molten metal is substantially solidified. Solidification within the mold is effected both by heat transfer through the mold walls and by the application of coolant (usually water) onto the surface of the ingot or billet as it emerges from the discharge end of the mold. Suitable means, such as a run-out table, rollers, belts or the like, must be provided a short distance away from the discharge end of the mold to support the ingot as it emerges from the mold because the partially solidified metal within the mold cannot support that part of the ingot or billet outside the mold.
The bottom surface of the emerging ingot or billet should be aligned level with the supporting surface to avoid any torsional loads on the forming ingot embryo within the mold. Torsional loads on the solidifying embryo can accentuate cold folds and other surface defects, can cause repetitive deformation of the ingot or billet and sometimes, if the load is great enough, can tear the embryo, resulting in molten metal flowing out of the mold. To assure that the bottom surface of the ingot or billet will lie on and be parallel to the pass line of the support surface, the mold is aligned with appropriate considerations given for metal shrinkage during solidification, such shrinkage being primarily size dependent.
Many methods and apparatus have been employed in the past to align the mold so as to maintain the lowest portion of the emerging ingot or billet level in the same plane as the pass line of the supporting surface. Most were either complicated or ineffective or both. Moreover, due to the methods employed to mount the mold onto the casting machine, any mold changes usually required realignment of the new mold which could be accomplished only by shutting down the entire casting operation.
It is against this background that the present invention was developed.